


...A Sober Chat's Thoughts

by bumbleb_tch



Series: A Drunk Chat's Words [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Hot Mess Adrien Agreste, Hungover!Chat Noir, It's here guys, Marichat, Rated M because Drunk Chat likes the fuck word, Sequel to "A Drunk Chat's Words", There is no spice this is fluff only sorry guys, partial reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:27:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23723842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumbleb_tch/pseuds/bumbleb_tch
Summary: But it wasn’t how his room should smell, and he wasn’t usually so absorbed in scents unless he was-Chat’s ear twitched, spine snapping ramrod straight as he realized he was very much a leather-coated catboy, hungover in a bed that definitely didn’t belong to Adrien Agreste.Oh shit, Ladybug was going to skin him.The adrenaline coursing through his body had him tensed and ready to launch himself out of whoever’s bed he was in and as far away as fast as possible. But he wasn’t stupid enough to cave and cause a scene-yet, anyway.He peeked one eye open, groaning as sunlight pierced his sensitive retinas and reignited his headache with increased vigor. Chat’s vision swam briefly before sharpening into clarity and finding his nose nearly buried in a mass of soft, dark hair. He sucked in another sharp breath and wracked his brain for what had happened to get himself in this position.---Sequel to "A Drunk Chat's Words..."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: A Drunk Chat's Words [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803991
Comments: 48
Kudos: 450





	...A Sober Chat's Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to A Drunk Chat's Words...  
> Can be read standalone, but probably makes more sense if you read both parts :)

Adrien drifted awake thanks to a tickle brushing his nose. He scrunched his face and snuffled. With his growing awareness came a throbbing headache that felt like his brain was being used to play pinball, ricocheting pain through his body. A deep inhale through his nose brought a rush of floral scents mixed with a light and airy sweetness; familiar but he wasn’t sure why. Or where it was coming from.

But it wasn’t how his room should smell, and he wasn’t usually so absorbed in scents unless he was- 

Chat’s ear twitched, spine snapping ramrod straight as he realized he was very much a leather-coated catboy, hungover in a bed that definitely didn’t belong to Adrien Agreste. 

Oh shit, Ladybug was going to skin him. 

The adrenaline coursing through his body had him tensed and ready to launch himself out of whoever’s bed he was in and as far away as fast as possible. But he wasn’t stupid enough to cave and cause a scene-yet, anyway. 

He peeked one eye open, groaning as sunlight pierced his sensitive retinas and reignited his headache with increased vigor. Chat’s vision swam briefly before sharpening into clarity and finding his nose nearly buried in a mass of soft, dark hair. He sucked in another sharp breath and wracked his brain for what had happened to get himself in this position. 

The previous night had featured a scheduled family dinner with his father. He could remember that quite clearly. It had gone much the same as every dinner since he’d turned 18, moved out, and enrolled in University without Gabriel’s express permission. It started in stiff silence and ended with him stealing his father’s most expensive bottle of vodka from his alcohol cabinet after the fourth argument of the night. 

Then he’d left. But rather than head home and have to endure the inevitable inquisition and subsequent cheering up session from his roommate, Adrien had transformed and wandered the rooftops of Paris until he found a rather pleasant garden and settled amongst the greenery with his prize. Somewhere between opening the bottle in the middle of a patch of honeysuckles and swallowing the last drop, Chat realized his net worth had technically increased by almost three thousand euros-and he lost his grip on time and responsibility. 

And what’s a bored and irresponsible cat to do? Wander the streets, of course. 

Chat remembered tossing the bottle off a rooftop into a deserted alley, watching the glass shatter into a million diamond shards and finding it almost as cathartic as the stupor he’d lulled himself into in the first place. He especially remembered seconds later when the heavens opened and a massive thunderstorm drenched him to the bone. Unable to properly ascertain where he was, and too inebriated to consider the possibility of transforming back and calling someone, Chat had simply stumbled into the first balcony he saw. 

No, that wasn’t true. He’d landed on a balcony, shaken some of the water from his form, and tried to clear his head long enough to think of a better solution than the one keening from the back of his mind like a siren song, desperately pleading for him to give in, call Ladybug and beg for her help. But he’d gotten distracted by something.

A soft rustling jerked him back to the present and he flicked his eyes around as best he could without moving or jostling the woman sleeping next to him- whose identity was still unknown! Something pressed down on his leg and he nearly screamed, jerking his head down just enough to make eye contact with a small, incredibly adorable, calico cat, her massive blue eyes peeking up at him.

Warmth spreading through his chest at sight of the tiny critter forced a wide smile to Chat’s face and he remembered exactly what had caught his attention. Standing on the balcony he’d jumped onto, he happened to glance at the next one over, a screen door separating the apartment from the balcony, and light flooding from within. But most thrilling, the cat curled just behind the screen, staring straight at him with wide, reflective eyes.

His own tail had whipped about excitedly and he’d wasted no time leaping across the gap to crouch on all fours in front of what he was fairly certain was the ideal creature in the entire universe. Nothing could possibly top this cat. And so began the unrelenting avalanche of praise.

“You are the most beautiful creature I have ever been blessed to lay my eyes upon,” he’d cooed, his tongue unwieldy in his mouth as he lavished compliment after compliment on the cat. “Just a perfect little kitty, aren’t you? You’re so good. Your tiny paws? Spectacular. Your adorably pink nose? 10/10 would boop…”

Likely, he would have continued that all night in his drunken state, enraptured by the calico, but a soft, and oh-so familiar voice had called his name. Chat had torn his eyes from the cat and waited for them to refocus on the source of the voice that was sending waves of contentment and glee through his body. He took in wide blue eyes, messy pigtails, and obvious concern twisting the sweet face of one of his friends. 

Marinette. 

Double shit.

At that exact moment, the woman next to him, who was without a doubt Marinette, shifted and rolled over, slinging her arms around him and drawing his stiff form into a firm embrace. Chat listened as her breathing remained deep and even before panicking.

Somehow he had gone from talking with a random cat on a balcony in the middle of the night, to waking up in Marinette’s bed. An offhand thought that sounded a little too much like Plagg pointed out that plenty of people would be thrilled to wake up in his kind, intelligent, and very attractive friend’s bed.

He chided himself for having the audacity to think that while blatantly taking advantage of his friend. Sliding a hand between them, Chat tried to gently pry her arms away and sidle out of the bed, but as soon as he applied any pressure her forehead furrowed- adorably, cough cough- and her arms tightened. Panicking yet again, he stilled, holding his breath and praying she wouldn’t wake up. 

After a few tense moments, Marinette sighed and nuzzled her nose into his arm, settling back into deep sleep. Chat huffed out a sigh of his own, his chest overflowing feeling tight with warmth, bleeding heat into his cheeks with every second he remained delightfully trapped in her embrace-accompanied by a reprise of thoughts-better-left-unsaid. 

Realizing it was unlikely he would be able to escape without waking Marinette up, Chat thought it best to get his story as straight as possible before that time came. He could remember Marinette’s face, light streaming from behind her in a way that gave her an almost angelic glow, which almost seemed to surround him in a soothing blanket-but that was probably just the vodka. 

Chat remembered talking to her, but couldn’t put in the words he’d said, before she’d tugged him inside, yelling a little in the sort of indignant way that Ladybug might when she was worried about him. And then she’d just disappeared. His drunken brain had felt as though he’d blinked and Marinette was just gone. 

Then his eyes had laser focused back on the tiny calico- Bug, if his memory served- and Chat had dropped to crouch in front of her and engaged in a lengthy staring contest that lasted however long it took Marinette to return and seat herself next to him. Of course, his dumb ass couldn’t keep quiet. 

_ “Have you seen this cat, Marinette? She’s perfect-” _

Chat cringed; she’d obviously seen her own cat before. 

Way to go, genius. 

Despite her brief crush on him, Marinette had never seemed terribly impressed by any suave demeanors, much like Ladybug-which might have been part of why he liked it-but he’d never convince her he wasn’t a stupid dork now. 

Marinette had been kind, Chat recalled that much, when her voice softly and carefully probed about his condition. And when he’d confessed, sneaking a peek at her face, scrunched into a concerned frown that was so much like his partner’s he could’ve sworn he heard her reprimanding him for his recklessness. 

But Marinette had just giggled and asked if he was okay. 

_ Chat was lying on his back, staring up at her face, still creased with worry for him, and doing his drunken best to put on a convincing show for her, pasting on a wide and cheeky grin that probably looked as plastic as it felt. “I’m absolutely pawfect, no need to worry about your knight in shining leather.” _

_ She seemed skeptical. “I’ll worry anyway, Chaton. But you did show up on a stranger's balcony to talk to their cat, that’s not the brightest neon sign saying you’re just swell.”  _

_ Chat fell silent, trying to process what she was trying to say and coming up blank until an anxiety crept up that perhaps he was far more trashed than he even realized and he’d somehow mistaken a stranger for his Princess. “I hope you’re not trying to tell me you’re not Marinette cause if you are I must be drunker than I thought.” _

_ “No, no!” Her laugh seemed to tickle down his spine, and he nearly spiraled into Nirvana as her slender fingers teased the hair at the base of his leather ears. “But you didn’t know this was my apartment.”  _

_ Oh. He’d forgotten that he’d stumbled onto his friend’s balcony, trashed out of his mind, for the sole reason of talking to her cat.  _

_ Chat tipped his head to the side, letting the hint of a smile tug his lips, “I must have borrowed some luck from Ladybug tonight.” _

_ And then she was tugging him to his feet, tripping over his own steel toes until he was close enough to throw himself prone upon her couch, hand draped over his forehead as though he’d swooned, ears pricked for a rewarding laugh to fall from Marinette’s peach-pink lips.  _

_ It didn’t come. _

_ Instead her finger prodded his cheek and he could hear the teasing smile in her voice, “You’re a hot mess, kitty.” _

_ Maybe it was the alcohol but before Chat could bite back his traitorous tongue, he was already taunting her with a curved eyebrow and a mischievous smirk, “You think I’m hot, huh?”  _

_ His reward this time came without delay, a perfectly astonished silence, Marinette’s mouth opening and closing in her persistent, awkward charm before she managed to stutter out, “Ah-ugh! That’s not what I meant!!” Turning tail, she stomped away, disappearing into where Chat knew her kitchen was located.  _

_ The room immediately felt lonely and cloaked in shadow without her light to brighten it. It took three tries to stand without tumbling onto his ass again, but he managed to waltz after her. “Put your claws away, Princess! I’m just teasing, I know you don’t think of me that way anymore.” His mouth really had a mind of its own tonight, running away with his thoughts before Chat had even finished thinking them. “Sometimes that makes me sad.”  _

_ Her head snapped up, cheeks tinged with a glorious flush. Their eyes met and hers pierced something deep inside him that he’d only ever felt looking at Ladybug, before just as quickly falling back to the teapot she was fiddling with. “What- Why? _

_ Chat’s cheeks hurt from how wide his grin spread, embarrassing Marinette proved to be challenging at times, her spirit and pride quick with retorts to his best- and worst- lines. But honesty, that never failed to unravel her seams, and honestly? He loved watching her come apart.  _

_ Luckily, he didn’t blurt that out loud as he sashayed to slide his arms around her waist and pull her petite form flush against his own, noting with glee that she was about the same size as Ladybug- just right for resting his chin on the top of her head. Chat expected her to find it obnoxious, as Ladybug always did. But Marinette relaxed into his arms as if she belonged there. _

_ It was like a lit match falling on the vodka coursing through his veins, igniting every nerve in his body with a rabid flame that lived, and breathed, and thrived in his heart.  _

_ He was so fucking screwed.  _

_ And he still couldn’t shut up. “You’re kinda the cat’s meow, Marinette." Chat mumbled, unable to stop once he started, spilling secrets he hadn’t even realized he had. "Sometimes I think too much about what might have happened if I had been able to see you around Ladybug back then- You probably didn’t want to know that, sorry Purrincess.” _

_ And he was sorry. For telling her anyway.  _

Then his memory descended into a horrifying abyss of stolen fragments that Chat could barely make sense of around his growing anxiety at just how deep of a grave he’d managed to dig himself. If he managed to even look Marinette in the eyes next time he saw her as Adrien, it would be a miracle. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, willing himself to remember the rest, but finding only flashes melting together with darkness in between

_ -His lips,tracing along her skin with a soft murmur, nearly lost in the overwhelming desire to let his tongue duck out to taste her, “But you’re in here.” And his words were innocent but the burning where his skin touched hers was anything but- _

_ -“Minou? Are you okay?” Marinette’s voice, like a melody he’d only heard in his dreams.- _

_ -Tumbling into her embrace and hating himself for letting her soothe him as her friend while he found himself adrift in a sea of his own uncertainty, questioning things he’d considered fundamental truths about himself _ -

_ -“Chat, friends don’t let friends wallow drunk on the couch alone.”- _

_ -Tucked in her bed, body stiff as he tried to relax and keep himself from melting into her, selfish and greedy to abuse her kindness. But Chat found that he ached for it anyway.-  _

_ -Massive green eyes, almost like miniature versions of his own, staring back from a furry void perched next to him, Marinette’s voice soft around the edges and hoarse in a way that desperately made him wish he could wake up next to her every morning, just to hear the sleepy laugh in her voice at his jokes. “I’d tell you his name, but I think it might be dangerous to inflate your ego like that.”- _

_ -She flicked his nose and for just a moment, his eyes blurred and he could just see a mask around the endless lakes of her forget-me-not eyes, so familiar that his chest cracked wide open, leaving him defenseless to admit that she was already deep in his heart and everything about her had Chat tumbling head over tail into dangerous territory. _

_ “I think you’re pretty neat. Now go to sleep.”  _

_ His heart sang with the melody of her words and he allowed himself one last moment of weakness, sliding his nose along her jaw, the ghost of his lips brushing the shell of her ear. And twice was too tempting for Chat to resist, his tongue daring to taste her skin for a fraction of a second. _

_ But it burned into his memory like a brand he’d never be rid of no matter how far he ran or how much he denied it, or how many times he was stupid enough to utter the words ‘just a friend.’ “I think you’re pretty neat too.”- _

If you’d asked him yesterday the name of the girl he was in love with, he would’ve been so sure of the answer.

Now-not so much.

Chat was even less sure of what to do with his newfound revelations, wrapped in the arms of the girl he’d managed to fall in love without noticing, and feeling like the worst kind of asshole to be taking advantage of her friendship like this. A high pitched whine rose in his throat, panic rising with it and Marinette, deep sleeper though she was, finally hit her limit. 

Blue eyes, tickling the back of his mind with a sense of home and familiarity, and, dare he hope, love blinked up at him, and the smile that curved her face was a kind of serene that Chat didn’t often see on Marinette, ever prone to chaotic outbursts.

“Hello, Chaton.” She murmured, and god, he was right. 

A lifetime of mornings waking up by her side would never be enough. He nearly swallowed his own tongue trying to reply, “Ah- good morning, Princess.” 

Marinette’s sleepy hum as she snuggled closer was nearly enough to send him into a  _ cat _ atonic state, and he would later swear his heart stopped beating. “Before you start apologizing, save it.” Her tone was firm and brooked no arguments, bossing him around nearly as well as Ladybug, but it grew thin and unsure as she continued. “Did you mean it?”

The fragile porcelain of her words threatened to shatter into a million impossible shards and Chat decided in that moment that whatever he’d said that she was referring to, he  _ did  _ mean it, and he’d repeat it a million times if she’d just tell him what it was. So he blurted, “Would I ever lie to you?” He’d nearly added ‘Bugaboo’ to the end of the sentence before catching himself, once again assaulted with the guilt that he was literally in her bed and thinking about another woman. 

Peeking up at him through her lashes, Marinette voiced the very thought, “What about Ladybug?” But her voice was steady and her tone indecipherable. 

Chat buried his nose in her hair and savoured the sweet bread and cherry blossoms that invaded his senses the same way his partner's did, calming his nerves as he gathered his thoughts. “I’ve loved Ladybug for as long as I’ve been Chat Noir. She’s my partner, my best friend, and sometimes it feels like we’re nearly sharing one mind. But she doesn’t love me quite the same and-” 

He swallowed hard, finding his tongue, which was so loose and slippery the night before, suddenly turned to stone. “-I think maybe I’ve been in love with someone else for a while and I was too stupid to realize it.” 

Marinette, in her kindness, soothed him with a quick reply, “I think I know exactly what you mean. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time hung up on my high school crush, unable to even see things right in front of me.”

Her words were like a balm to his guilty heart, easing the shame Chat had been feeling about loving two people at the same time, and he allowed himself to embrace her in the way she was him, holding her close as long as she’d let him. “Luka, right?”

She stiffened, a sharp snort puffing from her nose as she leaned her head up and flicked his nose. “Try Adrien Agreste.” 

The words echoed in the suddenly empty cavern that was his brain. He blinked, her eyes were too close and they held too many secrets, and he realized that maybe, just maybe, he really had borrowed some of Ladybug’s luck last night after all. 

Because she had a cat named Noir and another named Bug and her hair smelled like flowers and sweets and she called him Chaton with just the right cadence for his mind to play tricks on him and she was brave and kind and suddenly all he could see was Marinette flicking his nose and wearing Ladybug’s smile

And even better, she liked him. All of him.

“Marinette?” Chat’s voice was deceptively steady and confident, hiding the fact that his chest was collapsing in on itself, and he still had a headache, and he’d just realized that the love of his life was lying in bed with him and she’d loved him all this time. “Can I kiss you?”

Her lips crashing into his was the only answer he needed. 

**Author's Note:**

> There you have it! I hope y'all enjoyed it :)


End file.
